This is a hike report that I originally posted on the Great Lakes Hikes Yahoo Group:
06/30/03
On Friday, Kathy and I did a ten mile version of the Chapel Loop. We took the trail to Chapel Falls from the trailhead, followed the cliff top to Mosquito Beach and then skipped Mosquito Falls and took the short route to the parking lot.
Personally, this is my favorite Michigan dayhike. It's just stunning. Views, good temperatures... There are only a few things that could be better with this hike. The trail out to Chapel Beach is a bit too flat and wide for my liking. And the forest in that area seems like a quick replant from some previous era. Also, bugs can be bad, bad on the Mosquito Beach side of things. Finally, the shortcut trail on east side of Mosquito Creek/River is very muddy.
But that is all nitpicking. The cliffs are impressive and Chapel Beach is the most gaudily beautiful spot in Michigan. Water flows eems low right now, so the river mouth into the lake jogs to the west, forming a warm water swimming hole on the beach for the Boy Scouts we saw there.
We saw three pairs of hikers and one Boy Scout troop on our 9.7 mile hike.
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